Mayor Will Flanagan handily won a third term in office, beating challenger Joseph Carvalho with 68.39 percent of the votes and taking all 29 of the city’s precincts.

In the end, it was Flanagan with 8,284 votes to political newcomer Carvalho, who tallied 3,792 votes, based on unofficial results released Tuesday night.

Flanagan started out by thanking a crowd of his supporters at the Eagle Event Center on North Main Street. He said he was humbled and had an opportunity to meet with many people on election day.

Flanagan recalled a woman he met on Tuesday who told him it was the first time she had ever voted and came out “to vote for us.”

“To the mother who voted today because she knew she had an advocate for education, the senior citizen who came out to vote today, she voted for us because she knew she had an advocate in public safety, and the workers who said, ‘Mayor, I know you’re doing everything to move our economy.’ Those are the stories I heard today,” Flanagan said.

Flanagan referenced his opponent Carvalho, who he said at times during the campaign was getting personal.

“I want to take this opportunity to thank him for being involved in the process and give him a round of applause,” Flanagan said.

Moving forward, Flanagan said, there is still a lot of work to do.

“Tonight is a night to celebrate what we have accomplished,” Flanagan said. “But tomorrow it’s back to work. We made improvements in all sectors and all quality-of-life issues, but there’s still a long way to go.”

Flanagan said there are still people out of work or underemployed, people who are being victimized or in fear of being victimized, children who can’t read by the third grade and students who are dropping out. Those are the people Flanagan said he will continue to fight for.

Financially it was always an uphill battle for Carvalho, with Flanagan outfundraising and outspending his opponent during this campaign.

Carvalho said he was very pleased to receive nearly 4,000 votes and he’s looking forward to the next two years to gain a new energy and “certainly keep an eye on the betterment of the city.”

He said he’ll definitely remain involved on a number of issues and said he thought his campaign brought out a number of those issues that needed to be addressed.

Carvalho said he will definitely make a bid in 2015. Since this run for mayor was his first campaign for office, Carvalho said it was one of the biggest learning experiences of his life.

Between many fundraisers and countless press conferences throughout the campaign, Flanagan’s platform centered on the concept that the city is in better shape now than when he was elected in 2009. Highlighting, among other points, that Fall River no longer has the highest unemployment rate in the state, going from first to third worst.

Page 2 of 2 -
He said the finances of the city improved, which recently moved the bond rating up two points.

Carvalho called the finances in the city “out of control,” claiming a half-billion deficit exists. While his criticisms were arguable, his message never resonated an alternate plan.